The Smurfs (French: Les Schtroumpfs, Dutch: De Smurfen) is a comic and television franchise centred on a group of small blue fictional creatures called Smurfs, created and first introduced as a series of comic strips by the Belgian cartoonist Peyo (pen name of Pierre Culliford) on October 23, 1958. The original term and the accompanying language came during a meal Peyo was having with his colleague and friend André Franquin at the Belgian Coast. Having momentarily forgotten the word “salt”, Peyo asked him (in French) to pass the schtroumpf. Franquin jokingly replied: “Here’s the Schtroumpf — when you are done schtroumpfing, schtroumpf it back…” and the two spent the rest of that weekend speaking in “schtroumpf language”.[3] The name was later translated into Dutch as Smurf, which was adopted in English.

At the time he came up with the creative idea for the Smurfs, Peyo was the creator, artist, and writer of the Franco-Belgian comics series titled Johan et Pirlouit (translated to English as Johan and Peewit), set in Europe during the Middle Ages and including elements of sword-and-sorcery. Johan serves as a brave young page to the king, and Peewit (Pirlouit, pronounced Peer-loo-ee) functions as his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midgetsidekick.

In 1958, Spirou magazine started to publish the Johan and Pirlouit story La Flûte à six trous (“The Flute with Six Holes”).[4] The adventure involved them recovering a magic flute, which required some sorcery by the wizard Homnibus. In this manner they met a tiny, blue-skinned humanoid creature in white clothing called a “Schtroumpf”, followed by his numerous peers who looked just like him, with an elderly leader who wore red clothing and had a white beard. Their first appearance was published in Spirou on October 23, 1958.[5] The characters proved to be a huge success, and the first independent Smurf stories appeared in Spirou in 1959, together with the first merchandising. The Smurfs shared more adventures with Johan and Pirlouit, got their own series and all subsequent publications of the original story were retitled La Flûte à six Schtroumpfs (also the title of the movie version of the story).

With the commercial success of the Smurfs came the merchandising empire of Smurf miniatures, models, games, and toys. Entire collecting clubs have devoted themselves to collecting PVC Smurfs, and Smurf merchandise. McDonalds have recently produced a range of Smurf toys, including all of the famous characters, including Papa Smurf and baby smurf.

The storylines tend to be simple tales of bold adventure. The cast has a simple structure as well: almost all the characters look essentially alike — mostly male, very short (3 apples high),[6] with blue skin, white trousers with a hole for their short tails, white hat in the style of a Phrygian cap, and sometimes some additional accessory that identifies a personality (for example, Handy Smurf wears overalls instead of the standard trousers, a brimmed hat, and a pencil above his ear). Smurfs can walk and run, but often move by skipping on both feet. They love to eat sarsaparilla (a species of Smilax) leaves, whose berries the Smurfs naturally call “smurfberries” (the smurfberries appear only in the cartoon; in the original comics, the Smurfs only eat the leaves from the sarsaparilla).

The Smurfs fulfill simple archetypes of everyday people: Lazy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, and so on. All Smurfs, with the exception of Papa, Baby, Smurfette, Nanny and Grandpa, are said to be 100 years old. There were originally 99 Smurfs, but this number increased as new Smurf characters appeared, such as Sassette and Nanny. All of the original Smurfs were male; later female additions are Smurfette and Sassette – Smurfette being Gargamel’s creation, while Sassette was created by the Smurflings.

A characteristic of the Smurf language is the frequent use of the word “smurf” and its derivatives in a variety of meanings. The Smurfs replace enough nouns and verbs in everyday speech with “smurf” as to make their conversations barely understandable: “We’re going smurfing on the River Smurf today.” When used as a verb, the word “Smurf” typically means “to make,” “to be,” “to like,” or “to do.”

Humans have found that replacing ordinary words with the term “smurf” at random is not enough: in one adventure, Peewit explains to some other humans that the statement “I’m smurfing to the smurf” means “I’m going to the wood,” but a Smurf corrects him by saying that the proper statement would be “I’m smurfing to the smurf”; whereas what Peewit said was “I’m warbling to the dawn.” So “I’m smurfing to the smurf” is not the same as “I’m smurfing to the smurf.”[7]

In the animated series, only some words (or a portion of the word) are replaced with the word “smurf.” Context offers a reliable understanding of this speech pattern, but common vocabulary includes remarking that something is “just smurfy” or “smurftastic.”

In Schtroumpf vert et vert Schtroumpf (see Smurf Versus Smurf), published in Belgium in 1972, it was revealed that the village was divided between North and South, and that the Smurfs on either side had different ideas as to how the term “smurf” should be used: for instance, the Northern Smurfs called a certain object a “bottle smurfer,” while the Southern Smurfs called it a “smurf opener.” This story is considered a parody on the still ongoing taalstrijd (language war) between French- and Dutch-speaking communities in Belgium.[8]

When they first appeared in 1958, the Smurfs lived in a part of the world called “le Pays maudit” (French for “the Cursed Land”). To reach it required magic or travelling through dense forests, deep marshes, a scorching desert and a high mountain range.[9] The Smurfs themselves use storks in order to travel long distances, such as to the kingdom where Johan and Peewit live, and keep up-to-date with events in the outside world.[10]

In the Johan and Peewit stories, the Smurf village is made up of mushroom-like houses of different shapes and sizes in a desolate and rocky land with just a few trees. However, in the Smurf series itself the mushroom-like houses are more similar to one another and are located in a clearing in the middle of a deep forest with grass, a river, and vegetation. Humans such as Gargamel are shown to live nearby, though it is almost impossible for an outsider to find the Smurf village except when led by a Smurf.

The Smurfs’ community generally takes the form of a cooperative, sharing, and kind environment based on the principle that each Smurf has something he or she is good at, and thus contributes it to Smurf society as he or she can. In return, each Smurf appears to be given their necessities of life, from housing and clothes to food without using any money in exchange.

Papa Smurf is the leader of the community. Other Smurfs are generally named after their personality disposition, for example, Brainy, Greedy, Vanity, Lazy, Clumsy, Hefty, Jokey, Dreamy, Grouchy, or their profession, for example, Poet, Actor, Handy, Harmony, Farmer, Clockwork, Painter, Tailor, Miner, Architect, Reporter, Timber, Barber and Doctor Smurf. Other Smurf characters include Gutsy Smurf and Smurfette. Smurfette was created by Gargamel to lure the other smurfs. Papa Smurf then changed her into what we see today. The non-Smurf characters who would appear later would include the evil Gargamel, his cat Azrael, and the page Johan, who went from print to film and TV. Johan appeared on the Smurfs TV series in the 1980s, and on the same show, Peewit became Peewee, Johan’s young friend. Lord Balthazar is Gargamel’s godfather. Balthazar despises the Smurfs and is actually more cold-hearted than Gargamel, in addition to being a more powerful sorcerer. He lives in a large castle whose moat houses a fearsome dragon called a Moat Monster.

In 1998, writer Marc Schmidt wrote a parody article citing the Smurfs as an example of the impact of socialism in continental European culture.[12] French sociologist Antoine Buéno on the contrary described them in a 2011 book as a totalitarian and racist utopia [13] Studio Peyo head Thierry Culliford, the son of Peyo, dismissed the accusations as grotesque and frivolous.”[14]

Since the first appearance of the Smurfs in Johan and Peewit in 1958, 29 Smurf comics have been created, 16 of them by Peyo, the others by his studio. Originally, the Smurf stories appeared in Spirou magazine with reprints in many different magazines, but after Peyo left the publisher Dupuis, many comics were first published in dedicated Smurf magazines, which existed in French, Dutch and German. A number of short stories and one page gags have been collected into comic books next to the regular series of 29. English translations have been published in the U.S. by the graphic novel publisher Papercutz.

Benco Instant Choco Drink is a popular Dutch chocolate drink. The company’s mascot is a Benco jar with face, hands and feet. A series of ads in the form of one-page comic strips were published in comics in Europe with Benco living with the Smurfs and using his chocolate drink in order to sort out their problems: like getting Brainy Smurf to stop lecturing the other Smurfs; awakening Lazy Smurf from a deep sleep; or a reward for hard work. A whole adventure published over several weeks had Benco and the Smurfs having to face one of Gargamel‘s evil plots. These stories were published in Spirou (the Smurfs’ comic of origin) and rival publications like Le Journal de Mickey (based on Walt Disney‘s world of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck).[15] A TV ad was also made.[16]

Smurfs had two cereals in the 1980s: Smurf Berries cereal and Smurfs Magic Berries. Both had animated commercials on Saturday morning.[citation needed] A Smurfs pasta was made in the 1980s as well.[citation needed]

In 1965, a black-and-white 87-minute animatedfilm called Les Aventures des Schtroumpfs was released in theatres in Belgium. It consisted of five short cartoons made in the previous years for broadcasting on Walloon TV. German copies and copies with Dutch subtitles are known to exist. The stories were based on existing Smurf stories like The Black Smurfs and The Smurfs and the Egg, and were created by writer Maurice Rosy and artist Eddy Ryssack from the small Dupuis animation studios.[18] In total, ten animated shorts were created between 1961 and 1967, the first series in black and white and the later ones in colour.

In 1976, La Flûte à six schtroumpfs (an adaptation of the original “Johan and Peewit” story) was released. Michel Legrand provided the musical score to the film. The film would in 1983 be released in the United States (after the animated series became popular there) in an English language dubbed version titled The Smurfs and the Magic Flute. A few more full-length Smurf movies were made, most notably The Baby Smurf and Here are the Smurfs,[19] created from episodes of the Hanna-Barbera television cartoon series.

Television series

The Smurfs secured their place in North American pop culture in 1981, when the Saturday-morning cartoon series The Smurfs, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with SEPP International S.A., aired on NBC from 1981 to 1989. The show became a major success for NBC, spawning spin-off television specials on an almost yearly basis. The Smurfs was nominated multiple times for Daytime Emmy awards, and won Outstanding Children’s Entertainment Series in 1982–1983.[21]The Smurfs television show enjoyed continued success until 1989, when, after nearly a decade of success, NBC cancelled it due to decreasing ratings and plans to extend their Todaymorning show franchise to create a Saturday edition, although they didn’t do so until some time later.

DVD releases

On February 26, 2008 Warner Bros. released Season 1 Volume 1 on DVD. It contained the first 19 episodes. On October 7, 2008 Warner Bros. released Season 1 Volume 2 on DVD. It contained 20 episodes from season 1. Though Warner Bros. has decided to discontinue the season sets and release single disc volume sets instead, they are reportedly still following its correct order of episodes.

Magna Home Entertainment in Australia has released a 9 disc 50th Anniversary Collection, containing a total of 52 episodes[citation needed]. In September 2009, a Smurfette Themed Collection containing 25 episodes was made available followed by the Papa Smurf Collection in December 2009 containing 26 themed episodes.[26] In July 2010, both the Smurfette and Papa Smurf Collection were included in a special ‘Favourites Collection’.[26] Also releasing at the same time was the Smurfs very first feature film (produced in 1975), The Smurfs and the Magic Flute, available for the first time on DVD, in Australia.[26]

November 3, 2010 saw the release of two “Just Smurfy” collections, each featuring episodes not yet released on DVD to the Australian market.[26][26] December 3, 2010 saw the 3rd collection hit the market..[26] A fourth Just Smurfy set was planned for release on 2 March 2011.[26]

Magna Home Entertainment in Australia have released Season 1[27] & Season 2[28] on 24 August 2011. Season 3[29] and Season 4[30] released 5 October 2011. A limited edition ‘Ultimate Collection 1’[31] which features the first 5 seasons was released on 24 August 2011. A ‘Ultimate Collection 2’[32] which features Season 6 – Season 9 was released on 2 November 2011.

The show is being released on DVD in the UK through a joint conjunction with Arrow Films and Fabulous Films Ltd. The complete 1st season was released in a 4 Disc box set on July 5, 2010. Season 2 was released on September 6, 2010, and the original Smurfs feature film, The Smurfs and The Magic Flute, was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 11, 2010.

Figurines

From 1959 until the end of the 1960s, Dupuis produced Smurf figurines. But the best known and most widely available Smurf figurines are those made by Schleich, a German toy company. Most of the Smurf figurines given away as promotional material (e.g. by National Garages in the 1970s and McDonald’s in the 1990s) are also made by Schleich.

New Smurf figures continue to appear; in fact, only in two years since 1969 (1991 and 1998) have no new Smurfs entered the market. Schleich currently produces 8 to 12 new figurines a year. Over 300 million of them have been sold so far.[21] There are also McDonald’s the smurfs figurines starting July 29, 2011.

Music recordings

Over the decades, many singles and albums of Smurf music have been released in different countries and languages, sometimes very successfully, with millions of copies sold. The best known is the single The Smurf Song and its accompanying album, created by Dutch musician Pierre Kartner who sings under the alias Father Abraham, which reached the #1 position in 16 countries. Worldwide, more than 10 million CDs with Smurf music have been sold between 2005 and 2007 alone.[21]

Smurfs on Ice

For several years, the Smurfs were the children’s act in the Ice Capades travelling ice show; for many years after they were retired from that function, the Smurf suits from the show were issued to Ice Capades Chalets, the show’s subsidiary chain of ice rinks, lasting until the show was sold to a group of investors led by Dorothy Hamill and the Chalets were sold to Recreation World. The Smurfette suit in particular had a somewhat different hairstyle from what was portrayed in the Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

Smurfs in theme parks

Around 1984, the Smurfs began appearing in North American theme parks owned by Kings Entertainment Corporation. Each park featured a Smurfy attraction and Smurf walk-around figures. In 1989, in the France region of Lorraine, the Sorépark group opened a complete Smurfpark, named Big Bang Schtroumpf. In 1991, the park is bought by the successful Belgian Walibi Group and renamed Walibi Schtroumpf with new attractions. After the Walibi Group was acquired by Six Flags, the park was named Walibi Lorraine, and all the Smurfs in the park were removed (2003).

For a number of years Canada’s Wonderland had an entire Smurf village to walk through, ending with Gargamel’s Castle.

Paramount’s Carowinds has an artificial island that, for several years during the 1980s and 1990s, was named Smurf Island that had a complete Smurf village – including toadstool houses which could be entered.

Video games

The Smurfs have appeared in video games made for most major game consoles (including Nintendo’s NES, Super NES, and Game Boy systems, Atari, ColecoVision, Sega’s Game Gear, Master System, Mega Drive and Mega CD systems, and the original Sony PlayStation) and for the PC. In 2010, the Smurfs expanded into the world of apps for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch with the game Smurf Village.

UNICEF

In 2005, an advertisement featuring The Smurfs was aired in Belgium in which the Smurf village is annihilated by warplanes.[33] Designed as a UNICEF advertisement, and with the approval of the family of the Smurfs’ late creator Peyo, the 25-second episode was shown on the national television after the 9pm timeslot to avoid children seeing it. It was the keystone in a fund-raising campaign by UNICEF’s Belgian arm to raise money for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo—both former Belgian colonies.

In honor of their 50th anniversary in 2008, the Smurfs began a year long “Happy Smurfday Euro Tour” in connection with UNICEF. The Smurfs visited 15 European countries on the day of their 50th “Smurfday” in the form of publicly-distributed white figurines. The recipients could decorate and submit them to a competition. The results of this contest were auctioned off and raised a total amount of 124,700 euros for benefit of UNICEF.[34]

Translations

Both the comics and cartoons have been translated in many languages. In most cases, the original name “Schtroumpf” is replaced by a new term. The most common are variations on “Smurf,” while other names are indicative of their gnome-like appearance.